How Irish HR Managers Can Prepare for a U.S. Employee Transfer

Your employee keeps asking what happens next; leadership wants a date. It has been left to you in HR to ‘sort the visa.’

 After spending one entire evening searching the internet for U.S. visa requirements, you still feel woefully uninformed. Meanwhile, you’re busy running a pay cycle and handling three open requisitions.

With a history of always competently complying with leadership’s requests, on this matter you feel out of control, with no time to become a U.S. immigration expert along with all your other responsibilities.

An Irish HR manager preparing for a U.S. employee transfer should first confirm the employee’s tenure, proposed U.S. role, corporate relationship between the Irish and U.S. entities, and whether a U.S. entity already exists. For many qualifying intracompany transfers, the L-1 may be the most appropriate route, although other visa options may apply.

Why the internet keeps giving you the wrong answer

1. Most U.S. visa content is written for U.S. employers hiring in, not Irish employers moving an employee out.
2. H-1B can be an option for employment in a qualifying specialty occupation, including in some transfer situations. But it is a different category from the L-1. Cap-subject H-1B cases are subject to annual numerical limits and a selection process, while a qualifying L-1 intracompany transfer is not subject to the H-1B cap.
3. The single most common mistake (and avoidable) mistake is picking a visa route before confirming the employee’s tenure, role, and corporate relationship.

More Googling and AI searches can leave you with even more conflicting information. Start by asking the right questions.

The transfer route most Irish companies need: the L-1

• The L-1 is the U.S. intracompany transferee classification. In a standard individual case, the U.S. employer generally files an L-1 petition with USCIS; once approved, an employee who needs a visa applies for the L visa through a U.S. embassy or consulate.
• The qualifying relationship: The Irish and U.S. organisations must have a qualifying relationship, such as parent, branch, subsidiary or affiliate. The corporate structure must satisfy the L-1 ownership and control rules, and the qualifying organisation generally must continue doing business in the U.S. and at least one other country during the employee’s L-1 stay.
• The one-year rule: The employee must have worked for the qualifying organisation abroad for one continuous year within the three years immediately preceding the petition/transfer. This is a fact HR often discovers too late. For example, if an employee has been with you for eight months, the L-1 clock is not met.

L-1A vs L-1B:

• L-1A is for managers and executives. The maximum stay is seven years, with extensions in two-year increments.
• L-1B is for employees with specialised knowledge, meaning special knowledge of the organisation’s products, services, techniques, management or other interests, or advanced knowledge of its processes and procedures. The maximum period of stay is generally five years. USCIS examines whether the proposed L-1A position is genuinely managerial or executive and, for an L-1B, whether the employee meets the specialised-knowledge standard. Specialised knowledge does not have to be proprietary or unique.

The L-1 advantages worth knowing early:

• No annual cap.
• No lottery.
• For a qualifying intracompany transfer, the L-1 may therefore be a more natural route than the H-1B, although the right category depends on the facts.
• L-1 status is compatible with pursuing permanent residence. For some L-1A managers and executives, EB-1C multinational manager or executive classification may later be available if the separate EB-1C requirements are met.

Does it matter that your company is Irish, not American?

• For some Irish companies and investor-directors, a treaty route (E-2 Treaty Investor route) is an alternative to the L-1, resting on the 1950 Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation between Ireland and the United States, as supplemented by the Protocol signed 24 June 1992 (in force 18 November 1992).

• Two things HR should know:

1. For E-2 purposes, the nationality of the enterprise is determined by its ownership rather than simply by where it is incorporated. Generally, at least 50% of the enterprise must be owned by nationals of the relevant treaty country.
2. For someone applying for an E-2 visa from abroad, the application is made directly through a U.S. embassy or consulate rather than through the standard prior USCIS petition process used for an individual L-1 visa case. For applicants resident in Ireland, that will usually mean the US Embassy in Dublin. Current State Department guidance generally directs nonimmigrant visa applicants to apply in their country of nationality or residence.

• Dual Irish and British nationality can affect the E-2 analysis because the Irish and UK treaty bases are different, and the UK treaty carries an additional residence/domicile requirement. Flag both nationalities and the individual’s residence history for the adviser at the outset.
• For some individuals with extraordinary ability in their field, the O-1 may also be worth considering.”

What ‘good’ looks like:

• You brief leadership with a clear route, a realistic timeline, and an honest view of cost variables before anyone needs to ask twice.
• The employee, the spouse, and family know what is happening and when; the spouse’s right to work has been addressed early.
• Nothing lands as a late surprise. You have matters in hand.

You were never meant to be the U.S. immigration expert. Your job was to move the right person, protect the business, and keep everyone calm. You succeeded, not with a law degree, but with good preparation.

Your before-the-first-call checklist

Things you can act on today:

2. Confirm the employee’s exact tenure with the Irish company (start date, continuity, role held).
3. Write a plain description of the U.S. role: duties, level, whom they manage, what function(s) they own.
4. Establish the corporate relationship on paper (ownership chart, entity documents).
5. Confirm whether a U.S. entity already exists or is being created.
6. List who is moving: spouse (and whether they need to work), children, timing.
7. Note your real deadline and what is driving it.
8. Flag any dual nationality in the employee or owners.

When you prepare all this information, you turn the first specialist conversation into a strategy discussion, not a fact-finding mission.

The transfer of an employee to the U.S. transfer feels bigger than it needs to when guidance online sounds as if it is written for someone else’s company. Here at Flynn Hodkinson, talking through which route fits your specific situation is exactly the kind of conversations we run with Irish employers every week.

This post is for informational purposes only and is not intended as legal advice. If you require further assistance or advice relating to the above, please contact janice@flynnhodkinson.com.